Dan Halter

Shifting the goalposts

in collaboration with Adam Davies

shifting the goalposts invite

Dan Halter and Adam Davies, collaborated on this project at the Beitbridge border between Zimbabwe and South Africa. This border is a notorious crossing point for Zimbabwean immigrants who make their way illegally into South Africa. Dubbed the derogatory ʻamakwerekwereʼ in South Africa these foreigners often face harsh realities and xenophobia from their South African counterparts.

ʻShifting the goalpostsʼ or ‘moving the goalposts’ is a metaphor derived from association football or other games, that means to change the criterion (goal) of a process or competition while still in progress, in such a way that the new goal offers one side an intentional advantage or disadvantage.

This phrase could be used to describe the situation these migrants find themselves in – when having survived the border-crossing, they are suddenly forced to flee their new home due to xenophobic violence.

Taking the phrase ʻshifting the goalpostsʼ literally, Halter and Davies swapped one set of goalposts from a soccer field in Musina, South Africa with another from a soccer field in Beitbridge, Zimbabwe. The two affected fields now each have local and foreign goalposts, politicizing the current relations between the two countries.

‘Shifting the goalposts’ was situated in the timely context of South Africa hosting the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. This photographic series depicts a dirt soccer pitch in a poor Musina township similar to those where the majority of South Africans play the game. This is in stark contrast to the current costly mega-stadiums that have been built in the major cities funded by the government.